Guardians Of The Galaxy 2

And thus concludes the evening..

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Fast and Furious 8 (2nd viewing)

Jason Statham saves the film (again)

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Their Finest

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Mindhorn

​Well, this was an interesting one.. Another Screen Unseen and the general vibe on the interweb was that it was Mindhorn.. I was kinda looking forward to this one as I'd seen the trailer ages ago.
I got chatting to a couple at the bar when I was getting my coffee and told them that it might be Mindhorn.

I'll hand it over to IMDb for a quick synopsis...
"A has-been actor best known for playing the title character in the 1980s detective series "Mindhorn" must work with the police when a serial killer says that he will only speak with Detective Mindhorn, whom he believes to be a real person."

This film started off as a p*sstake of 80's cop shows and by the end had actually turned into one.. I'm not sure what to make of it really.. In some ways it was similar to 'Alan Partridge : Alpha Papa' and 'David Brent the movie'. Only those films had the advantage of the main characters being familiar and having a backstory.. This film had the same humor and at points turning into a farce..
Perhaps I'm a sucker for films about middle aged men struggling to come to terms with erm... middle age and all it's associated problems..
I think I enjoyed it ? All the best jokes were in the trailer (".. you need help.. I work alone.."). Although there was a funny scene involving a street carnival..

In the end it was just mildly entertaining. It passed the '6 laugh test'.. well, for me it did. It was almost like an extended TV show and it didn't really need the big screen treatment..

Overall ***1/2 stars

I bumped in to the couple on the way out and the lady commented "that's 2 hours of my life I'll never get back.."..
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Fast & Furious 8

​Well, that went exactly as I expected it to..

As IMDb once said.. "When a mysterious woman seduces Dom into the world of terrorism and a betrayal of those closest to him, the crew face trials that will test them as never before..."
Yep, that pretty much sums it up really. It was fun.
Jason Statham saved the film. (you put Jason Statham in ANY film and he'll save it)
The Rock pummelled everyone and everything in his path..
Vin Diesel tried to show a new level to his acting.. and failed.
Helen Mirren turned up as a cockney gangster mum..
The set pieces were loud, large and so far over-the-top they made tops look really... erm.. low.

There was an interesting use of remote driving facility on new cars (only I don't think that many cars have the feature yet).

Overall though it was an entertaining Easter Saturday morning. ***1/2 movie.

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Ghost In The Shell 3D

I was looking forward to this one after the preview footage I saw at Free Fire..
This is the second 'live action remake' I've seen this year (after Beauty & The Beast) and this one is based on a 1995 full length Anime feature of the same name.
Ok IMDb, hit me with some knowledge.. "In the near future, Major is the first of her kind: A human saved from a terrible crash, who is cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world's most dangerous criminals."

This film looked impressive.  It's future looked busy and congested. But also animated and awe inspiring. Holographic fish floated down the street while huge, 'building size', three dimensional advertisements sat comfortably amongst the cityscape..
Fair doos, you got to hand it to Scarlett Johansson. She's got a comprehensive CV when it comes to movies.. As well as her contribution to the Marvel Cinematic Universe she's had a couple of lower budget corkers too.  She manages to hold this one together too. Unfortunately when it comes to plot this film has been done before in numerous variations..  Which is generally the case with modern Sci-fi. It's only when substance out weighs style do we get the truly outstanding movies.
Overall though, it was a visual feast, and I'm glad I saw it. ***1/2.
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